Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/406

390 was not forgotten, resorted to the manufacture of whisky as a means of living. This business would have prospered without doubt, as the mountain men now coming into the country, with other waifs of civilization, found their chief pleasure in hard drinking; but Young found the odium attaching to whisky-making scarcely less than that of horse-stealing, the difference being that one was recognized as a crime against law while the other was only an offense against the best public sentiment.

As a matter of fact the opposition it aroused proved a fortunate circumstance to the whole community, including Young himself. Doctor McLoughlin, in his anxiety to prevent drunkenness among the old servants of the company and the Indians, as well as the miscellaneous population, added his influence to that of the missionaries in the formation of a temperance society, a majority of the Canadian settlers becoming members. To the remonstrances of the leaders in this movement, Young replied that he did not himself have anything to say in favor of his project except that he needed money, but since it was so abhorrent to the gentlemen at the head of affairs in the country, he would suspend his purpose until time was had to consider what might be done.

This respectful submission to the moral code of the upper class led the missionaries and chief at Vancouver to offer Young payment for his outlay if he would abandon his intention, This he finally consented to. But in all these transactions he steadily refused to have any communication, personally, with Doctor McLoughlin. While planning to erect a saw- and grist-mill on his claim there arrived in the territory a secret agent of the United States government to whom he related his grievances. This agent, W. A. Slacum, of the navy, offered to lend Young $150 wherewith to purchase clothing at

Van-